A journey of the mind afloat in space and time. An emotion capture. Arresting images and some great poems and lyrics.

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Monthly Archives: May 2018

There was a child went forth every day,And the first object he looked upon and received with wonder or pity or love or dread, that object he became,And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day . . . . or for many years or stretching cycles of years.

The early lilacs became part of this child,And grass, and white and red morningglories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phœbe-bird,And the March-born lambs, and the sow’s pink-faint litter, and the mare’s foal, and the cow’s calf, and the noisy brood of the barn-yard or by the mire of the pond-side . . and the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there . . . and the beautiful curious liquid . . and the water-plants with their graceful flat heads . . all became part of him.

And the field-sprouts of April and May became part of him . . . . wintergrain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow corn, and of the esculent roots of the garden,And the appletrees covered with blossoms, and the fruit afterward . . . . and woodberries . . and the commonest weeds by the road;And the old drunkard staggering home from the outhouse of the tavern whence he had lately risen,And the schoolmistress that passed on her way to the school . . and the friendly boys that passed . . and the quarrelsome boys . . and the tidy and fresh-cheeked girls . . and the barefoot negro boy and girl,
And all the changes of city and country wherever he went.

His own parents . . he that had propelled the fatherstuff at night, and fathered him . . and she that conceived him in her womb and birthed him . . . . they gave this child more of themselves than that,They gave him afterward every day . . . . they and of them became part of him.The mother at home quietly placing the dishes on the suppertable,The mother with mild words . . . . clean her cap and gown . . . . a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by:
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, angered, unjust,
The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure,The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture . . . . the yearning and swelling heart,Affection that will not be gainsayed . . . . The sense of what is real . . . . the thought if after all it should prove unreal,The doubts of daytime and the doubts of nighttime . . . . the curious whether and how,Whether that which appears so is so . . . . Or is it all flashes and specks?Men and women crowding fast in the streets . . if they are not flashes and specks what are they?The streets themselves, and the façades of houses. . . . the goods in the windows,Vehicles . . teams . . the tiered wharves, and the huge crossing at the ferries;The village on the highland seen from afar at sunset . . . . the river between,Shadows . . aureola and mist . . light falling on roofs and gables of white or brown, three miles off,The schooner near by sleepily dropping down the tide . . the little boat slacktowed astern,The hurrying tumbling waves and quickbroken crests and slapping;The strata of colored clouds . . . . the long bar of maroontint away solitary by itself . . . . the spread of purity it lies motionless in,The horizon’s edge, the flying seacrow, the fragrance of saltmarsh and shoremud;These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes and will always go forth every day,
And these become of him or her that peruses them now.

Around rolls the year and Countee Cullen lights another candle on his birthday cake before releasing a primal yawp and leaping about with hectic blood.

Fruit of the Flower; by Countee Cullen

My father is a quiet man
with sober, steady ways;
for simile, a folded fan;
his nights are like his days.
My mother’s life is puritan,
no hint of cavalier,
a pool so calm you’re sure it can
have little depth to fear.

And yet my father’s eyes can boast
how full his life has been;
there haunts them yet the languid ghost
of some still sacred sin.

And though my mother chants of God,
and of the mystic river,
I’ve seen a bit of checkered sod
set all her flesh aquiver.

Why should he deem it pure mischance
a son of his is fain
to do a naked tribal dance
each time he hears the rain?

Why should she think it devil’s art
that all my songs should be
of love and lovers, broken heart,
and wild sweet agony?

Who plants a seed begets a bud,
extract of that same root;
why marvel at the hectic blood
that flushes this wild fruit?

Tenzing Norgay, first man photographed on top of Mount Everest. Norgay was perhaps born on this day in 1914, three years to the day before John F. Kennedy. In 1953 on the same day, Norgay and Edmund Hillary were the two first men to successfully ascent the highest mountain in the world.

Norgay had no ability with a camera so the only photograph of the event was of Norgay, taken by Hillary.

Norgay knew he was born in May (from the growth of crops) in the year of the rabbit (1914). When he summited Everest on May 29th he adopted that date as is birthday.

Julia Ward Howe was born May 27th 1819. Abolitionist, advocate for social justice in general and womens’ suffrage in particular. Best remembered as the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” which are lyrics she penned to the already popular song “John Brown’s Body”.

The John Brown song was a collection of often bawdy verses cobbled together by Union soldiers. John Brown is the famous abolitionist who was captured at Harpers Ferry in his attempt to raise the slaves of Virginia to rebellion. He was hanged for treason. On the day of his hanging he wrote prophetically:

“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.”

Folk history holds that there was also a Union sergeant by the name of John Brown, and you can guess what kind of verses are assigned to a sergeant by troopers. So the market was rife for a cleaned up version of an already popular song.

John Browns Body actually began life as a hymn. In the Christian meeting of the 19th and 19th century “Call and Response” hymns were popular games, and the faithful could add their own verses to a framework. “Glory, Glory Hallelujah” remained the heart of this song. It began life as “Oh Brothers will you meet me, on Canaan’s happy shore.”

I voted against the 8th referendum in 1983. I was in the minority and it passed. I was 20 years old and I felt out of touch with my own country. I could not understand how the holy Joe brigade won on that day.

I clearly remember them handing out lapel badges with tiny feet on them, to represent the feet of foetuses. I remember the praying women, bearing their crosses and their rosary beads, marching up and down the central reservation in O’Connell Street, saying the rosary.

I remember the convents being cleared out on the polling day to make sure that nuns who had not been outside their walls in decades were engaged to cast their votes.

Thirty years on the climate has changed in Ireland. The winds from Rome have weakened considerably. They iron hard grip of the church on society has slackened. The hand of the church is liver spotted, wrinkled, veined and atrophied. The church has failed to move with the times and faces dissolution. It is losing control of its two strongest bastions, education and health. Ireland is well on its way to becoming a fully secular nation.

I am not anti-christian. I actually think the Christian church was in its day the greatest force for positive change on the planet. The preaching of a message of peace and love was a giant leap forward from some truly awful religions. The breaking of bread and the drinking of wine as votive rites are much more civilised than chaining virgin girls to rocks, stoning sinners to death or slitting the throats of sheep and goats.

My issue is not so much with Christianity as it is with organised religion. My position is summed up by a speech from the film “Kingdom of Heaven” where the Hospitaller knight says to Balian:

I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of God. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What God desires is here [points to head] and here [points to heart] and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man – or not.

In summary: Regardless of your intentions, we are what we do.

In the Repeal the 8th campaign we saw, yet again, what the Religions Right actually do. They lie. They cheat. They bully.

These are people who hold themselves up as the model of morality in our society. Their intentions are all good. But their actions are a disgrace. They intentionally distort facts to make their point. Sometimes they lie through omission and they have been caught in outright overt lies. When they are called to account on their lies they employ the tactics of “Deny, Delay, Defend”.

Uniquely in this campaign the social media giants like Facebook and Google decided they would not accept political campaign postings in the lead up to the vote. OK this is anecdotal but I did notice a fall off in “Repeal” material on my social network feeds. On the eve of the election I was still seeing “Vote NO” material. The no campaign exploited every loophole they could find to keep their campaign going. I classify this as cheating.

The bullying was overt throughout the campaign. Removal of Repeal posters. Attacking campaigners in the streets. Toppling their tables. Throwing their leaflets to the ground. Shouting down debaters in public discussion. It was all ugly behaviour and none of it was reflective of what I think of as the Christian ethos.

These are people who took the lesson of Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple, and use it as a model for how to wage every campaign. They weaponize religion.

They lost this campaign. They lost the same sex marriage referendum. They lost the right to travel referendum. They lost the divorce referendum. But every loss makes them smaller, tighter, closer and more and more fanatical.

Rónán Mullen is the tip of this spear. Elected by my own Seanad constituency. Who, who, who is voting for this Smeagol, this Gollum, this hobgoblin. Out, out, out I say. This must not stand.

Born in 1950 in Derry, Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness grew up in the worst era for Catholics in Northern Ireland. They were discriminated against so badly in Protestant Northern Ireland that they emulated Black Americans such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. in setting up non-violent civil rights protests against the regime.

Through the 1960’s just as in America, the ruling class escalated the use of violence to break the protests. McGuinness joined the IRA and was, at only 21 years of age, the second in command of the Derry Provisional IRA when British Paratroopers murdered 14 civil rights protesters in Bloody Sunday.

He was imprisoned, treated as a terrorist by a British Regime under Maggie Thatcher. A British Government that seemed hell bent on destroying the nationalist cause by violence, intolerance and general all round hatefulness.

Elected to Stormont in 1982 in the wake of the hunger strikes and the death of Bobby Sands he, like all Sinn Féin, did not take his seat.

McGuinness went on to become the chief negotiator of the Good Friday Agreement and he took personal responsibility for disarming the IRA.

On this day, his birthday, in 1998 the people of Northern Ireland voted on the Agreement in a referendum. 75% of the people of Northern Ireland voted for peace.

Think about that. 25% of the Northern Irish wanted to continue the violence, the death and destruction. Who are these people?

McGuinness was cast by his enemies as a villain and a terrorist. But this is a man who worked tirelessly for peace all his life. A short life in the end. He passed away last year aged only 66.

Martin lived to see his life’s work come to fruition. Northern Ireland is not a finished object and there is a long road to go to reconciliation. That 25% of nay sayers is still up there looking to bring the whole thing crashing down about our ears. Don’t let them.